All change.... new start

[jerseycentraluk]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been an avid watcher of the evolution of some stunning layouts on this site. So now it’s my turn to dip my toe in the water of sharing my progress with a new layout, so please bear with me.

My previous layout was modelled on CNJ in the mid ‘60s, with a bit of Reading, LV and L&HR mixed in.



This layout existed for 10 years and was nearly finished when the decision to move house was made, so everything was boxed up and the layout taken down. A lot of the benchwork was salvageable but all the roadbed and trackwork was scrapped. It was a sad day taking the plywood tops down to the local waste station and throwing them into the skip (dumpster)

We moved into our brand new house at the end of April 2012. The bedroom available is basically the same size, maybe slightly smaller than the space I had before but a different orientation.



My original intention was to carry on with the same theme and use the same stock. But there was a feeling of ‘been there, done that’ and I felt I would always be comparing it with what I had before and may be disappointed.

So I looked at what I wanted out of a layout. I have always liked switching so my attention turned to the Lance Mindheim way of thinking and the idea of an industrial switching layout started to germinate. I looked at some of the suggestions for switching layouts outside Miami. I looked at McClellan Business Park in Sacramento. It has its own Sacramento Valley locos owned by Patriot Rail, previously an old GP9, but now nice newly painted GP15’s, repainted from NW.
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Nice smart livery, but no decals available and a pain to paint by hand. I had seen that ex NW GP15’s are used elsewhere by GMTX, and GMTX 403 was a nice patched version and much easier to model, so I ordered an Athearn Genesis NW GP15 with sound as they seemed to be disappearing fast. So it seemed that a mish-mash of prototypes, railroads and locations would serve the purpose, but it wouldn’t be based on any particular prototype or location, and would I be happy with that long term?

It’s certainly harder to model North American railroads when you live in UK, having to rely on books; DVD’s and photos for information. My only trip to USA was in 2010 when my wife and I went on an Alaskan cruise to celebrate my 50th birthday. We flew to Seattle and stayed overnight, before the ship left Seattle the next day.

The bus trip from the hotel to the ship gave me my first and only first hand view of working US railroads in action.

The bus route to the Pier went down E. Marginal Way and it looked like the sort of area just waiting to be modelled. Lots of spurs going off the line that ran alongside the road.

All with a nice assortment of boxcars, covered hoppers of different sizes waiting to be unloaded, cars off-spot waiting for a space at their destination. By the pier a BNSF job ran past with an assortment of cars. This is probably what a lot of you see everyday, but to me it was all new. Inevitably of course my camera was packed in a bag and I couldn’t get any photos.

At that time a move was not in the offing and my modelling direction was firmly set 50 years earlier and on the east cost not the west.

But now with the chance of a new start it seemed to be the ideal prototype to use as basis for my new layout.

Planning started, and with the help of my good friend Brian and hours of looking at Bing and Google maps and street views following tracks around that part of Seattle, several versions of plans were drawn up and changes suggested and discussed, some were discarded whilst others have been included to arrive at the final plan. After a discussion, my wife kindly agreed to me making a small hole in the wall into the guest bedroom so that it could be used for staging, but only when the layout was operating.



I haven't decided on what industries will occupy the unallocated spurs, but I have some scrap gondolas that i definitely wasnt to use. I have been thinking of putting a transloading facility on the peninsular to unload covered hoppers and maybe centerbeams and bulkhead flatcars.

[Steamtrains]

Glad to have you aboard....

There's a lot of folks here that do excellent work, and more than a few of us with a lot to learn...
I'm sure you'll be a positive addition to Big Blue's roster...

So....post away, and we'll gladly follow along on your journey...

[jerseycentraluk]

Once some preparatory work was finished, including re-hanging the door to open outwards, work started on building the benchwork in July.



I was able to re-use a lot of the brackets and L-girders from my previous layout.



Battens and risers were added following a tried and tested method used on the last layout.



Now the room is full of a pristine ply surface fully supported at 50” high ready for laying track.



The route to staging has been "excavated" now as well.



Its late here now, so I will carry on tomorrow. I will try to keep you up to date as things progress.
Toe dipping over for now... the water feels fine..!!

[tomustang]

Welcome to the forum. I must say, I've lived in the sacramento area for a year awhile back and I would never trade my home roads for some of theirs 8-)

Good luck on your transition, make sure you have a time period set since business locations are folding out there and their might be something different in some places now

[Harry]

Robin

[jerseycentraluk]

The next big decisions to be made were on track and points (turnouts). I had already decided that this would be a minimum radius would be 24” and #6 frogs.

The previous layout used Peco code 75 with electrofrogs. I did have a problem on a couple of turnouts over time with the tie-bar coming loose from the switch rail.
I had experience of using Peco Code 83 on a friend’s layout and it seemed to be a good choice, as it is easily available in UK. There is a problem that there is a restricted range compared to what I was used to in Peco code 75 but it does look like US track not British, but the restricted geometry did mean that it didn’t meet the track plan requirements.

I ordered an Atlas Code 83 19 degree crossing to see how it would marry up to the Peco track and turnouts. I was so disappointed when it arrived. So much plastic, so little rail.!! I set up a test bit of track with Atlas crossing and Peco turnouts to replicate one the areas. I ran some of my newly acquired freight cars through the crossing to see how they ran.





Clunk clunk was all I heard as the wheels dropped in the frogs of the Atlas crossing. I knew that this wasn’t something I was going to be able to live with so I had to think of another solution.

I liked the idea of using ME track and turnouts, but limited availability and lack of crossings made this less of an attractive proposition. I spoke to friends who had used ME turnouts and they told me about cast frogs and problems they had had with them.

Only one thing for it – make my own!

Fast Tracks seemed the obvious solution but the limited number of turnouts needed meant it would be a huge outlay for the jigs and mean the cost per point was excessive. Also it did not answer the question of the crossing. I search the internet and found a supplier on eBay that sold turnouts he had made using Fast Tracks jigs. The prices were reasonable ($29.00) even compared to Peco turnouts in this country ($24.00 approx) and he could make a 19 degree crossing to match in code 70. I ordered a left and right #6 turnouts and a crossing all in code 70 to see what the quality was like. I was very pleased with the quality when the items arrived.



The rest of the turnouts and the two extra crossings needed to build the latest version of the track plan have been ordered and I've been told they will be ready for shipping shortly.
The plain track will be Micro-Engineering code 70 to match the handbuilt turnouts.

[Ralph]

Hi,

Your original layout sure looked great! I'm looking forward to seeing your next one develop. I really like the staging area in the other room...totally off-layout. It really gives a sense of trains going some place. The track plan looks like it will provide a lot of fun operations.

Ralph

[Charlie B]

Welcome Robin,
I too am in the process of building a layout, I think it is at least my tenth. I am glad I'll have someone else to steal ideas from.
Keep posting the progress, these guys get antsy when the reports quit coming.
Charlie b

[jerseycentraluk]

Here's the other side of the hole in the wall. Road bed to staging is a tongue of ply that is part of the top surface on the other side. This should make sure that there is no problem with derailments due to changes in track height. I’ve got two 2m lengths of aluminium L angle to use for the staging with a ply base. This will attach to the tongue of ply emerging from the hole in the wall. I’ll use shelf brackets either side of the window in the guest room to hold it in place when layout is operating. When the layout isn't operating the idea is I can take off the staging from the brackets and store it in the layout room underneath the peninsula.



I’ve painted the room sky blue down to baseboard tops level. Just blue for now, no clouds or lighter towards horizon yet.



I can’t decide on what to do about the window? Go across it with a board? but that will cut out all the natural light, or have some sort of temporary piece to put in when operating or taking photos? Only trouble with that is it needs to be at least 6’ x 2’.. and that’s not light or easy to slot behind finished buildings and all sorts of detail stuff.. inevitably accidents would happen..!!
I did think of expanded polystyrene sheet, but it doesn’t have a smooth finish to take paint, then there is Celotex, the stuff with the foil face to it, but that gets dented so easily it would be a mess very quickly.. so I’m a bit stumped. I don’t want to carry on with painting until I can figure out a solution.

Anyone got any ideas..??

[Ralph]

I'd want to keep that all of that natural light so a removeable backdrop makes sense to me. I appreciate the dilemna of having to move a 6 X 2 piece of board. Could you use a piece of construction foam, painted and covered with pictures of background buildings or scenary? The blue or pink stuff many modelers use as a track base is rigid and durable, but light.
Ralph

[jerseycentraluk]

Could you use a piece of construction foam, painted and covered with pictures of background buildings or scenary? The blue or pink stuff many modelers use as a track base is rigid and durable, but light.
Ralph

Ralph, I did think of construction foam as an option. The trouble is its not used as a standard item in construction in UK, so its not readily available in the equivalent of Home Depot here.

If anyone in UK knows a local source please let me know?

[jerseycentraluk]

For any of you in UK. I have found a source of 'blue' construction foam. Sheffield Insulations have branches all over the country and will sell single sheets through their trade counter. The product is Dow Floormate 300A. for a 2500mm x 600mm x 50mm thick the price I was quoted was £15.75+VAT.

I'm going to try and get a sheet tomorrow and see whether it works for what i want. I think I'd better take a saw, dont know if the sheet will fit in the car? :?

[fast car]

Robin,

Lance Mindheim has this same issue to address when setting up his East Rail shelf layout. Open his website and go to the Model Railroads Section at the top of the page and then click on East Rail. You will see that his shelf railroad runs the middle of two double hung windows. Lance used a light valence to partially block incoming light and just enough sheet plastic to cover the backwall and cover the curtain area. The window can still give light above the light valence and and below, closer to the floor.

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Larry











Larry

[jerseycentraluk]

The track plan for the layout has been designed using XtrkCad. It has the very useful facility of printing out the final track plan full size (1:1).

On my old layout I taped all the sheets together and laid them on the cork tile top of the boards, and laid out the track and turnouts according to the plan. I used Peco trackpins to pin the track down. This meant that the paper plan remained in placebeneath the track. This wasn't a problem until I started ballasting the track. The diluted PVA lifted the paper and deformed the ballast surface.

For this layout I will glue down the track using No More Nails.

I did some experiments on sticking down the plan onto a scrap piece of ply with a spray on adhesive.



It worked, and then I tried it with and without a sealer before gluing a test track on top and ballasting it. The sealer gave a better result although there wasn’t that much rippling and lifting of the paper on the unsealed side, I still think I will go with sealing it.



I haven’t glued the cork tiles down yet either, in case I need to move any of the uprights if I change the track plan at all. After all, its inevitable that if I have covered all the screw holes with cork tiles (there are 150 of them) that hold the tops to the uprights, I will need to move something because of something I haven’t thought of. I suppose until the point work comes I can’t progress and until that point I’ll be thinking if anything needs changing. That brings me back to the peninsular again, and what is best use of the space...?

I originally was thinking of leaving the area fairly open and use the area as a transload facility. I found a couple of facilities in Seattle that I could take elements from.

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The first is a MacMillan Piper facility, which is the more interesting. It handles covered hoppers and I presume centerbeams from the amount of lumber stacked in the yard. Both of these would provide some variety for switching. I havent got room for the full facility, it handles container stack traffic as well. Besides not having any

The second is another PCC facilitybut I think has less variety.

[BOK]

"What to do about the peninsular"?

If this were my layout I would widen the peninsular at the base so the main/lead could travel down one side, around the end and back up the other side before heading into staging. Admittedly, this wiill cause the benchwork/industry on the wall by staging to become more narrow, to handle the increased width of the peninsular, but still could serve a pair of industries in relief. In addition i would make the connection to staging be a full wye so engines/cars ("unload this side only") could be turned and it would act as a terminating/interchange point on the harbor railroad being fed by other larger railroads. I would also place industries on both sides of peninsular and scenic the base to resemble track following a harbor. it's very common to find sharp curves in these areas feeding industries and wandering around warehouses to get from one place to another. Just a note: I am not sure the length of equipment you plan on operating but with 22-24" radius curves for the main line you should be able to handle 50-70 foot cars nicely including the wye.

If it was desired to actually simulate an earlier period or as a shortline, say the 1940-50s as a branch line, then a small turntable with simple, engine facilities, could be placed at the other end of the line for true point to point operation with small steam locomotives (Bachmann 0-6-0 and 2-6-0 engines) handling the business. Maybe you could also tack on a combine or run a gas electric for passenger service. No matter the era, it should be a line where only a handful of cars, 4-6 are handled at any one time and trackage should not be complicated but very simple as is the prototype, definitely shying away from switching puzzles. My experience from 45 years of railroading as a conductor/engineer has taught me to ALWAYS KISS keep it simple as it always take longer than you expect to get a job done.

Finally since the two ends of the layout are pretty close by the entrance I would build either a simple, lift out or drop down to connect both ends for a bit of continous running when you just want to see trains run or for visitors who really are not interested in true operation. I like your plan but think it offers many more options than what you have designed thus far. Throw in a lot of trees, a bit of seaside water, a couple of large buildings and you have a great layout which can be built quickly but take a lifetime to scenic and operate.

Just some suggestions from an "old head" railroader.

Barry